All Forum Posts by: Chris Guthrie

I like the fact that you plan to invest slowly and debt snowball.  I've heard of one too many REIs who put too many eggs in one basket and have lost everything.  With a diversified portfolio, you'll be fine!

You could always list it for sale or rent and see who bites at what price.  If it rents high enough, then rent it.  If you'd rather sell at a certain price, sell it.  If it doesn't sell, live in it...etc.

Hard to say. Yeah, it doesn't make for a great rental, so I think I would either stay in it or sell it. However, with a 15 year mortgage, you are actually paying quite a bit of principle down each month. It made your payment higher, but you can handle it -so maybe worst case, you rent it out and break even and in 14 years from now you have a free-and-clear home. That actually sounds kind of intriguing... thoughts @Chris Guthrie ?

What you are describing is our model although we are all about leveraging as much as possible. I talk all about or model, goals and investing philosophy in my not.  Those upgrades while not producing more income will certainly allow you to appeal to a better tenant.

My husband has a very stable job for hopefully the next 15 years. Our goal is too invest in homes now that will have the cashflow to allow us to retire off of it and a military pension in 15 years. We have found that living in personal properties and renting them out has been a huge benefit to our model. It allows us to invest very little to nothing into them in the sense of downpayment. We get lower interest rates (as you found).  If I were you, I would continue to get 15% loans. While your cash flow is not huge and it affects you ability to invest in future houses, you have mentioned this nt being an issue. 15% give you more rights off, higher book loss more and more principle.

We certainly over improved our first house but it has allowed us to get a 3 year tenant at market rate. We have even been able to keep the rate increased. 

It really determines your goals. Our goal is when the house appreciates so will the cash flow. This will produce more returns. Once the market no longer makes sense at our business strategy, we will start to pay off the loans. We also like these nice properties because they let us manage long distance which is need because my husband has transient career.

Welcome to BP, do you create websites?

Did you close the FHA loan back when they waived PMI for 15 year terms? If so, awesome! If I were in your shoes, I would be OK with little to no cash flow on that property in exchange for allowing a renter to pay off that loan. $6000+ per year in principal pay down is nothing to sneeze at.....so long as you aren't in need of the immediate cash.